Tuesday, 27 May 2025

First Nations custodial health care

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:46): (924) My question is to the Minister for Corrections. Minister, you have previously spoken to this chamber about your commitment to addressing the health needs of First Nations people in custody. You also indicated your interest in supporting a pilot of a First Nations led model of health care in prisons. As you are aware, ensuring this model of care is available in prisons has been recommended by various entities, including the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a recent Ombudsman’s report, Coroner’s Court recommendations and the corrections cultural review. However, we were incredibly disappointed to see that the pilot has not received the requested $2 million in this year’s budget, despite almost a billion dollars of additional funding going towards opening more prison beds. Why wasn’t this pilot program funded?

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:47): I thank Dr Mansfield for her question and interest in my corrections portfolio. As a government we have made significant investments, and this year’s budget has been focused on frontline services and delivering real help with the cost of living. In the corrections setting it is about making sure we have a modern system and making sure that we can run the programs that have been so successful in making a difference to people’s lives. In our women’s system we have a public health provider and we have a new contractor for health across our men’s system since I took over the portfolio. This budget announced an additional $700 million into our corrections system, the majority of which will be focused on hiring more staff, since we are seeing an increase in the prison population in response to our tough new bail laws.

But we are continuing to invest in programs, and there is $22 million in this budget dedicated to a new self-determined grants program to support First Peoples on remand and on bail, so there will be further opportunities for people to engage in that process. I want to thank the Attorney-General and also the Treasurer for their support in making sure that this additional $22 million is in the budget to support First Nations people that do find themselves in contact with our corrections system. There is a lot of work that is being done. I have been proud of the investments we have made, such as the Aboriginal healing unit at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

In relation to the pilot specifically, I will say it is something that I do support. On that quantum, to be frank, I am not sure if that is the level of funding needed to run a pilot. I think something much smaller, much more boutique and much more tailored would potentially work in our adult system. I think you need to trial it before you can scale up. I had the opportunity late last year to visit the ACT and see the work they have been doing, and it was quite informative. There were definitely benefits, but there were obviously some serious learnings to be taken out of what has happened in the ACT. I want to take this opportunity to thank the minister in the ACT for that opportunity. I think, from my point of view, a trial within our adult system is still something we should consider going forward.

We will have this discussion next week in PAEC with many of you; Mr McGowan is listening very carefully, I see, to my contribution. I think we will have an opportunity to tease out that. We do have a significant corrections budget of over $1.5 billion, and I think within that envelope there are opportunities to still do a trial. I am still interested in continuing those discussions. I have regular discussions with the Aboriginal Justice Caucus, Aboriginal-led health organisations and people like Aunty Jill Gallagher. I think these discussions should be ongoing. I think we need a pilot. I think it would be helpful to explore that option. Within that envelope, within the corrections budget, it is something that I am still exploring.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:50): I thank the minister for that response, and I am pleased to hear that you are still willing to pursue this pilot. I will point out that the $2 million was for a small-scale pilot, not for rolling out a full program. It is actually, in the context of things, a relatively small amount of money. But what I was interested in is how much of the additional prison expenditure is going to be used for expanded healthcare provision due to the anticipated increase in prisoner numbers.

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice) (12:50): I think, as I announced during the last sitting week, the majority of the $700 million is towards staffing. That staffing obviously is frontline, to make sure we have got people in the appropriate posts. If you do not have the adequate staffing and safety, you cannot run programs in the corrections system. Staff safety and having the appropriate people in the appropriate positions is foundational to a successful system.

A large part of that will be in upscaling our contracts for health services. Obviously in the women’s system we have got an agreement with Western Health, and we have got GEO across our men’s system. Those negotiations are taking place as we speak. I cannot put an exact figure on it today because some of those are ongoing discussions. It is difficult to predict where the numbers will be. We have seen an increase in the population on remand. We have still got another round of community safety reforms to come to this chamber. Seeing where those laws land – they will have an impact on the end system. Those negotiations are ongoing, so I cannot give a breakdown, but there are additional funds of course to roll out those programs proportionate to the increase in population.